There was a time when CDs would produce a respectable 4%+ yield. Nowadays, you’ll be lucky to find a 5-7 year CD that provides anything above 2.5% The great thing about CDs is that there are no income or net worth minimums to invest, unlike many alternative investments, which require investors to be accredited. Anybody can go to their local bank and open up a CD of their desired duration. Furthermore, a CD is FDIC insured for up to $250,000 per individual, and $500,000 per joint account.

P.S. I also fail to understand your fascination with real estate. Granted we’ve had some impressive spikes along the way, especially with once in a life time bubble we just went through. But over the long term (see Case Shiller real estate chart for last 100 years ) real estate tends to just track inflation. Why would you sacrifice stock market returns for a vehicle that historically hasn’t shown a real return?

The loss of the entire SBD limit would cost an Ontario CCPC about $65,000 in additional annual corporate taxes ($500,000 x 13% increase in the corporate tax rate). However, once income is paid out by way of dividends from the CCPC, the analysis we have reviewed suggests that the combined personal and corporate tax burden will increase by only about 1% as compared to the current tax regime.
For example, I wrote “How to Get a University Job in South Korea” in October 2014. Sales peaked for the first few months after I released it at $50+ a month, but I’m still selling a few copies here and there and making $10-20 a month. The best part about it is this $10-20 is for no work. I no longer do any sort of promotion for it aside from perhaps mentioning it in a blog article if appropriate. That’s some passive income awesome!
In this economy, it seems like more and more of us are looking for a way to earn passive income. Whether we need to pay off credit card debt or just need some extra cash, passive income could come in handy. But what is passive income exactly? Depending on who you ask, it may not be as “passive” as you think. Let’s take a look at what it is and the top ways to make it.
1. Interest: If the interest a landlord pays on their mortgage isn’t their biggest expense, it is certainly close to it. Even with rates as low as they are today, interest payments are a sizable cost that needs to be accounted for. Nonetheless, for as intimidating as interest payments can be, they are not without their benefits. Mortgage interest has become synonymous with one of the largest deductions landlords can make. Passive income investors can deduct mortgage interest payments on loans used to acquire or improve a rental property. However, it is important to note that they can also deduct the interest paid on credit cards specifically used to to maintain rental property activity.
Dividend stocks tend to be more mature companies that are past their high growth stage. Utilities, telecoms, and financial sectors tend to make up the majority of dividend paying companies. Tech, Internet, and biotech, on the other hand, tend not to pay any dividends because they are reinvesting most of their retained earnings back into their company for growth.
For a closely held corporation, the passive activity loss is the excess of passive activity deductions over the sum of passive activity gross income and net active income. For details on net active income, see the Instructions for Form 8810. For the definition of passive activity gross income, see Passive Activity Income , later. For the definition of passive activity deductions, see Passive Activity Deductions , later.

Passive income broadly refers to money you don't earn from actively engaging in a trade or business. By its broadest definition, passive income would include nearly all investment income, including interest, dividends, and capital gains. What most people are referring to when they talk about passive income is income that comes from what the IRS calls a passive activity.

Our favorite platform for this is RealtyMogul because you get the flexibility to invest as little as $1,000, but can also participate in REITs and private placements – typically not offered to the public. Investors can fund real estate loans to gain passive income or buy an equity share in a property for potential appreciation. Their platform is open to both accredited and non-accredited investors.

One of the things I'm surprised your article doesn't mention is the tax advantages of this type of investment. The depreciation and rehab costs (purchasing distressed properties) can be huge deductions to ones income taxes, which none of the others have. Then, along with the appreciation of real estate, this passive income investment outperforms the notion of maxing out my 401k as well.
The second withholding amount is for Medicare tax. This tax is 2.9 percent of all wages. Again, this tax is jointly the responsibility of the employee and the employer, with each paying 1.45 percent. Unlike the Social Security tax which has an earnings cap, this tax does not. Any wages or other forms of earned income are considered subject to this tax. If self-employed, you pay the full 2.9 percent. These payroll taxes are used to fund Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits.
This is important to understand this because it is a difference of how you spend your time. No-joke big-time investors make money in their sleep without putting in any effort because they invest in passive income investments. If you are putting in effort, while you might be making bank and doing great at it, you are working. You are making a lot of income because you are rocking out a J-O-B. The no-joke big-time investors, if you’ll notice, also put in a lot of effort but their effort is not on what is currently making them income, it is on finding the next thing that will provide them more income!

Investors turn to real estate as a way to build long-term wealth, earn additional income, and generate a tax shelter. Using real estate as a tax shelter that extends to other income can be a complicated process. Knowing how you can use any losses generated by your rental real estate starts with understanding how the IRS defines and treats passive and active income.

Let’s say I am a parttime real estate investor with buy and hold rentals. I have a normal W-2 job but decided for educational purposes to take/pass the state real estate licensing exam. Now if I have an opportunity and want to work on nights/weekends as a real estate agent, does my passive rental income now get taxed (and much higher) as active income? Or does this come down to whether I work +\- 500 hours as an agent?
Venture debt ($12,240 a year): The first venture-debt fund has returned almost all my initial capital, so I decided to invest $200,000 in the second fund. I took a risk investing $150,000 in my friend's first fund, so I'm hoping there's less risk in the second fund, given he has four more years of experience on top of his 12-plus years of experience running a venture-debt portfolio for another company.
Investing in coins and collectibles: Buffalo nickels and Spiderman comic books are good examples of coins and collectibles that can rise in value, and thus offer opportunity for passive income investors. You'll need to get up to speed on the value of any coin or collectible under consideration, but once you do so, you're on the way to price appreciation on a commodity you'll be paying a lower price to buy, and will garner a higher price when you sell.
Blogging is still going to take work starting out. That path to $5,000 a month didn’t happen overnight but just like real estate development, it build up an asset that now creates constant cash flow whether I work or not. I get over 30,000 visitors a month from Google search rankings, rankings that will continue to send traffic even if I take a little time off.

One of the most appealing options, particularly for millennials, would be #12 on your list (create a Blog/Youtube channel). The videos can be about anything that interests you, from your daily makeup routine (with affiliate links to the products you use), recipes (what you eat each day) or as you mention, instructional videos (again with affiliate links to the products you use). Once you gain a large following and viewership, you can earn via Adsense on YouTube.